Investors to be facilitated in local tourism projects

Investors that will want to implement tourist projects in Moldova could benefit from a terrain rent payment facility for the next 50 years, provided these terrains are in the vicinities of national tourism sites. According to the ministry of Culture and Tourism, Artur Cozma, this is could be done if the Legislative approves a new law regarding tourism in Moldova. This project will be presented to the deputies in the first meetings of the fall session. The document project implies that if the economic agents will build parking lots, hotels and other resorts in the vicinity of tourist sites, they will be absolved of taxes for a time span of 10 years, with the exception of social funds taxes. The project is meant to stimulate investment in local tourism, minister Cozma stated. According to him, because of the lack of natural tourism resources, the successful evolution of tourism in Moldova depends on the combination of rural, wines and ecologic tourism. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced that in the first 7 month of this year approximately 7 thousand foreigners visited Moldova, and this number represents only 80% of the same number of last year. Of these not even 3 thousand were tourists. The statistics provided by Artur Cozma are different from the one showed by BNS. According to the minister, the flow of international tourists to Moldova decreased by some 2-3%. Moreover, the amount of money these foreigners spent in the country has increased.